Introduction by The Editor:
When embarrassing information must be released by the federal government, the best time to publish it is
on a Friday evening, after most of the Washington reporters are at home for the weekend. That way, if the
bad news is spread at all, it will be done by the weekend B-team, with little or no critical review.
This technique was first brought to my attention by Rush Limbaugh in about 1995. There is only one reason
for this behavior, and that is deception.
General
Milley Ignored Trump Order to Deploy Nat. Guard at US Capitol Prior to Jan. 6.
Shocking new details were released by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee on Friday of US
military brass ignoring President Trump's request for security on January 6th. President
Trump knew there would be a massive crowd of Americans at the planned rallies outside the US Capitol
and at the Ellipse that day. So, Trump ordered the National Guard to be deployed to the US Capitol
prior to the planned protests on January 6. The newly surfaced transcripts, which were
previously concealed, reveal the truth that many in the mainstream media have ignored.
Secret
Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe Gives Latest on Trump Assassination Attempt Investigation.
On Friday afternoon, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe did a press conference in order to update the
public on the Secret Service internal investigation on the July 13 assassination attempt on former President
and GOP nominee Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Rowe's comments were short, summarizing
the facts and investigation findings that RedState has reported extensively.
Secret
Service Reveals Failures That Led to First Trump Assassination Attempt. Breakdowns in
communication with local law enforcement impeded the Secret Service's ability to competently
address the first attempt on former president Donald Trump's life at a Pennsylvania rally in July,
according to a preliminary report released Friday. Secret Service acting director Ronald
Rowe, who replaced Kimberly Cheatle following her resignation due to fallout from the attempted
assassination, laid the blame on complacent Secret Service agents, who he vowed would face
unspecified consequences. "While some members of the advance team were very diligent, there
was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols," Rowe said while
announcing the findings. The Secret Service head noted he could not detail personnel matters
as the agency's investigation remains ongoing.
The Editor says...
You can safely wager that the investigation will be "ongoing" forever, if that's what it takes to avoid answering any questions.
U.S.
Cuts Another Massive Check to Ukraine. On Friday [9/6/2024], the Biden White House
announced it would write another multi-million dollar check to Ukraine in addition to the
$113.4 billion it has already given the country. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
announced that the United States would provide Ukraine with a $250 million aid package that
includes missiles, armored vehicles, and anti-tank weapons.
Kamala
Harris's Radical Islamic Terrorists Deal Revoked in Friday Night Surprise. The
Biden-Harris administration revoked a plea deal with the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks
after bipartisan blowback against the agreement. The administration announced the original
deal, which would have taken the death penalty off the table for the terrorists, only two days
before its revocation. The deal immediately met overwhelming bipartisan blowback.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memorandum Friday killing the deal, despite the three
defendants — alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as well as his accused
co-conspirators, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al
Hawsawi — having already agreed to plead guilty to all charges, including the murder
of 2,976 people, mostly Americans.
DOJ
Pays Off Strzok And Page For Their Messages In Settlement. It's a classic Friday
night news dump, because the Department of Justice (DOJ) knows that this looks like a payoff.
Because it IS a payoff. Former FBI agent Peter Strzok and his affair partner Lisa Page, who
were both working on "Crossfire Hurricane" — the FBI "investigation" into Donald Trump's
alleged Russian connections, which the Mueller Report later confirmed was a nothingburger, thanks
to the faked Steele Dossier — decided to sue the DOJ because their text messages had
been released. They claimed that their "privacy" had been violated. Yes, their "privacy."
While using GOVERNMENT PHONES. Any ding-a-ling who works for the FBI should know that you have
no right to privacy when you work for the government and use their devices.
Supreme
Court Erases Loophole That Kept Foreigners Inside The U.S. Illegally. In a 5-4 ruling
Friday, the Supreme Court erased a loophole that allowed foreigners to avoid deportation
proceedings by citing a paperwork technicality. The case centered on three illegal
immigrants: Moris Esmelis Campos-Chaves, an El Salvador native who entered the country
illegally in 2005 through Texas; Varinder Singh, a man from India who illegally entered the U.S. in
2016 by "climbing over a fence" in California; and Mexico-native Raul Daniel Mendez-Colín, who
illegally entered the U.S. in 2001 in Arizona. [Advertisement] The trio argued that their
deportation notices did not meet the criteria for a proper notice as prescribed by the law.
Title 8 USC § 1229 (a) describes two types of notices. The
first is a general initial notice to appear that shall include, among other specificities, a "time and
place" for the proceeding. The second notice regards a "change or postponement in the time and
place of such proceedings." The Supreme Court previously ruled in 2021 that "this information
must be provided in a single document in order to satisfy [the law]."
Military
Draft Coming? House Passes Measure To Automatically Register Men For Selective
Service. The House of Representatives on Friday approved its version of the annual
defense policy bill, effectively clearing the $883.7 billion National Defense Authorization
Act (NDAA) to move forward in a 217-199 vote which largely fell along party lines. Only three
Republicans opposed it. A number of 'controversial' amendments are part of it, setting up a
further fight with Democrats as it moves forward, including a measure empowering the National Guard
to crack down on the southern border. But among the most interesting aspects to the bill for
Fiscal Year 2025 is an amendment to the NDAA which automatically registers all draft-age male U.S.
residents with the Selective Service System.
House
passes resolution to automatically enroll men aged 18-26 in military draft. The House
of Representatives passed a resolution Friday that automatically enrolls young men for selective
service, and expands the mandatory draft ages by one years, to men aged 18-26. Young men are
already required to register for selective service if they are between the ages of 18 and 25, but
the new resolution would enroll them automatically. Although the draft has not been used in
half a century, it is considered a felony if an eligible man fails to register, Fox News
reported. The resolution was included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which
approves the defense budget for the next fiscal year, and includes the government's top priorities
when it comes to defense and national security policies. The NDAA passed the House in
a 217 [to] 199 vote.
Biden's
plan to save Hamas. There was nothing accidental about the timing of the speech on
Friday afternoon, at a time when much of America's political establishment was heading out for the
weekend while Israeli Jews were celebrating the Sabbath and many were not even using electronic
devices. After celebrating former President Trump's conviction, Biden announced a new deal
under which Hamas would rule Gaza, get billions in U.S. aid and dozens of its terrorists would be
released from prison in exchange for every hostage. Or every hostage's dead body. Under
the terms of Biden's proposal, Hamas wins and Israel gets back survivors and corpses.
Finally, American taxpayers will be on the hook for an "extensive three- to five-year
reconstruction program for Gaza that's fully backed by us" and which will cost endless
billions. The deal that Biden laid out gives Hamas everything it wanted, including staying in
power. An end to Israeli attempts to eliminate the terror group, and all the money it could
possibly need.
US
sends $275 million of weapons and military aid to Ukraine. The United States on
Friday announced a fresh tranche of military aid for Ukraine, including ammunition, missiles, mines
and artillery rounds as Russia presses its assault on the Kharkiv region. Ukraine has been
battling back in Kharkiv since May 10, when thousands of Moscow's troops stormed the border,
making their biggest territorial advances in 18 months. "The United States is announcing
today a significant new drawdown of weapons and equipment for Ukraine to support the brave
Ukrainian people as they defend their country," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "This
$275 million package, which is part of our efforts to help Ukraine repel Russia's assault near
Kharkiv, contains urgently needed capabilities."
Biden
DHS shuts down 'experts' panel featuring signatories of infamous Hunter laptop letter.
The Biden administration agreed Friday to shut down a panel of "experts" that included multiple
signatories of a letter that dismissed a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden as Russian
disinformation. The Department of Homeland Security agreed to "wind down" the Homeland
Intelligence Experts Group in 30 days following litigation from America First Legal, according
to court documents. The experts in the group included former CIA Director John Brennan and
former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who signed an October 2020 letter that
claimed a bombshell New York Post report about emails from the laptop supposedly abandoned by
Hunter Biden "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Senate
reauthorizes warrantless spy powers just after midnight deadline. The Senate passed a
controversial extension of the federal government's warrantless spying powers just after a midnight
deadline on Friday over objections from Democrats and Republicans who opposed the incidental
collection of US citizens' data as part of the authority. In a 60-34 vote, Democrats and
Republicans voted to reauthorize Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
until 2026, sending the legislation to President Biden's desk for a signature. The White
House issued a statement in strong support of the legislation, called the Reforming Intelligence
and Securing America Act, before it passed the House last week in a 273-147 bipartisan vote.
The FISA authority was set to expire on April 19, which proponents had warned would end
critical intelligence-gathering efforts through a provision known as Section 702.
Biden
Admin Has Flown Over 400,000 Migrants To Airports Across US. The U.S. has flown in
over 400,000 migrants from a host of countries since President Joe Biden took office, according to
Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Under the Biden administration's CHNV program, some
nationals hailing from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela can be eligible to come to the United
States "in a safe and orderly way" and obtain humanitarian parole status, meaning they are here
legally and can obtain work authorization. Over 400,000 migrants hailing from these nations
have been flown into airports across the U.S. as of March, CBP said in a statement on Friday [4/12/2024].
Lights
Out: Biden Admin Targets Lightbulbs In Latest Appliance Crackdown. The Biden
administration finalized energy efficiency regulations targeting light bulbs on Friday [4/12/2024].
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced the final rules for "general services lamps," a category of
products that includes light bulbs, to nudge the market to adopt more energy efficient models.
The Biden administration, led chiefly by the DOE, has pushed similar regulations targeting a host of
household appliances.
The Editor says...
[#1] If new light bulb technology (or any other innovation in household appliances) will save the
consumers money, no coercion by the government is necessary. [#2] Light bulbs do not
emit carbon dioxide. The power plants that emit carbon dioxide are gonna run, whether your
light bulbs are turned on or off. [#3] Carbon dioxide is plant food, not pollution.
There is no reason to avoid carbon dioxide emissions.
FBI
Quietly Releases Unclassified File on Ashli Babbitt, During the Solar Eclipse. While
most Americans were dialed in on the solar eclipse, the FBI quietly released unclassified documents
regarding Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran whom a Capitol Police officer killed on
January 6th. On April 8th, the FBI released a highly redacted 69-page file on
details of Ashli Babbitt's death, military background, and testimonies on Babbitt's
character. On page three of the file, it was written, "BABBITT is deceased, and therefore,
this case is not being nominated to TSDB." TSDB stands for "the terrorist screening data.["]
Biden's
Next EV Mandate Is Out and It's Going to Break America. Say goodbye to the trucking
industry as we know it, and goodbye to the American economy, too. You might have missed it on
Good Friday — which you can be sure was no accident — when the Biden EPA
released its new tailpipe rules for semi-trucks, but the new rules will destroy how we move goods
around the country. It seems like only two weeks ago that I told you about Presidentish
Biden's new EPA regulations, coming into effect starting in 2027, that will force two-thirds of new
car buyers into electric vehicles whether they want one or not. The tailpipe rules will
effectively outlaw most gas and diesel engines by requiring a near-impossible 52% reduction in
emissions. On the Good Friday News Dump, the EPA announced similar restrictions on
semi-trucks, again starting in just three years, and the changes will require one of those
"fundamental transformations" the Left is so fond of.
House
passes $1.2 trillion spending package hours before shutdown deadline, sending it to
Senate. The House passed a massive spending package on Friday to fully fund the
government through September, sending it to the Senate ahead of a midnight deadline to avert a
partial shutdown. The House approved the $1.2 trillion package, which was unveiled early
Thursday, in a vote of 286 to 134. The package wraps six spending bills into one to fund about
three-quarters of the government until the end of the fiscal year. Another package funding
the rest of the government cleared Congress two weeks ago. A majority of Republicans voted
against the measure, with House conservatives objecting to the funding levels in the agreement that
House Speaker Mike Johnson reached with Democratic leadership in the Senate.
Congress
passes first package of spending bills just hours before shutdown deadline for key agencies.
The Senate on Friday approved a $460 billion package of spending bills in time to meet a midnight
deadline for avoiding a shutdown of many key federal agencies, a vote that gets lawmakers about halfway
home in wrapping up their appropriations work for the 2024 budget year. The measure contains six
annual spending bills and has already passed the House. It now goes to President Joe Biden to be
signed into law. The White House said he would do so Saturday, and "agencies will not
shut down and may continue their normal operations."
A
Tale of Two Presidents. President-In-Name-Only Joe Biden finally decided to visit
East Palestine, Ohio — the community that last year endured both a toxic train
derailment and the government's questionable decision to burn the spilled hazardous chemicals and
poison the region's air. Given Biden's obvious cognitive decline, it's impossible to know
whether PINO mistakenly thought he was heading out to provide aid and comfort to Palestinian
terrorists in their war against Israel or whether he wanted to belatedly feign love for blue-collar
Americans before demanding their votes in November. Either way, Dementia Joe made the trip
late in the day on a Friday so that coverage of his visit would disappear with the rest of the
administration's conveniently flushed news.
300,000
Illegal Border Crossings In December. Trying to hide just how bad the crisis at the
border has become, the Biden administration released the December border numbers in a Friday night
news dump. This was the latest the numbers have been released in at least eight years.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows 302,034 illegal immigrants were encountered
attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in December, the highest month ever recorded in DHS
history. For 34 straight months, monthly encounters have been higher than even the highest
month seen under the previous administration. Biden's border crisis is so bad, this is now
the fifth time CBP has needed to adjust the y-axis on the illegal encounters graph. With
roughly 9,700 daily encounters, this dwarfs the definition of a "crisis" set by Obama's DHS
Secretary Jeh Johnson when he said in 2019 that "more than 1,000" encounters a day "overwhelms the
system." December's 300,000-plus encounters is a 460 percent increase from the average
number of October apprehensions from 2017-2020. [...] At least 49 people on the terror
watchlist have been encountered trying to enter the U.S. between ports of entry this fiscal year.
J6
Political Hostage and Army Veteran William Chrestman Sentenced To 4.5 Years In Prison For
Walking in US Capitol. US District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Army veteran Wiliam
"Billy" Chrestman to four and half years in prison Friday for protesting the stolen election
outside of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Prosecutors sought 63 months, or more
than five years, for Chrestman. "I honestly feel I've spent more than enough time behind
bars," Chrestman told The Gateway Pundit hours after he was sentenced. "I've been in the DC
Gulag for three years. I committed no violence or vandalism on January 6th, 2021."
How
could President Biden not notice his defense secretary was missing? With US forces
under regular attack across the Mideast and the Navy actively engaged with Houthi forces in the Red
Sea, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was out of commission in the hospital from Monday on.
Worse, no one told the White House; worse yet, neither President Biden nor National Security
Adviser Jake Sullivan noticed. Not until the Pentagon let Sullivan know on
Thursday. Anyone thinking that the nation is well-led despite Biden's blatant feebleness
better think again: Austin and his deputies ignored the law here, while Sullivan was plainly
asleep at the switch. Again, with American forces regularly under fire, and our friends in
Ukraine and Israel fully at war with Russia and Hamas. Oh, and the public was kept in the
dark until Friday.
SBF
Charges Dropped Proves System Is Rigged. Nothing to see here. Move along.
That is the message from the prosecutor in the Sam Bankman-Fried case, as he notified the judge
that the government would not be pursuing a trial in the charges not adjudicated in SBF's trial
over defrauding customers. What charges are affected? Maybe it really is no big deal
since the prosecutor tells us that the judge has all the information he needs to sentence SBF to a
nice long sentence. The charges that are dropped relate to bribery of politicians and illegal
campaign contributions. [...] These days the elite is no longer even trying to pretend that there
is equal justice under the law. We've seen this time and again. The FBI abuses its
power and targets the politically inconvenient; the justice system prosecutes and imprisons
conservatives while letting Leftist rioters off; prosecutors allow thugs to run riot in cities
while inventing crimes with which to charge Donald Trump.
DOJ
accused of covering for 'deep state' by not holding second SBF trial on illegal political
donations. The decision to avoid a second trial charging Sam Bankman-Fried with a
conspiracy to make unlawful political donations and bribery of foreign officials has many
conservatives up in arms. Federal prosecutors said Friday [12/29/2023] that they do not plan
to proceed with a second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, citing public interest in a speedy
resolution of the case that has seemingly irritated those who were hoping to see the disgraced FTX
founder prosecuted to the fullest extent. In a Friday letter filed in federal court in
Manhattan, prosecutors said they do "not plan to proceed with a second trial" as "much of the
evidence that would be offered in a second trial was already offered in the first trial and can be
considered by the Court at the defendant's March 2024 sentencing."
Police
video shows police knew Maine shooter was a threat. They also felt confronting him was
unsafe. Police in Maine feared confronting an Army reservist prior to the worst mass
shooting in state history would "throw a stick of dynamite on a pool of gas," according to footage
released by law enforcement. The videos were released to the Portland Press Herald and then
sent to The Associated Press on Friday [12/22/2023]. Robert Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist,
committed the deadliest mass shooting in Maine history when he killed 18 people at a bowling
alley and a bar on Oct. 25 in Lewiston.
House
Speaker Mike Johnson Announces Total Release of J6 Footage. Soon, all Americans will
be able to view the entire footage of the riot at the U.S. Capitol building that occurred on
Jan. 6, 2021. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Friday that he would be releasing the J6
footage in all of its totality to the public. The move could mark a significant shift in the
ongoing discourse and narratives surrounding the events of that day. In a post on X, formerly
known as Twitter, Johnson made the announcement. "Today, I am keeping my promise to the
American people and making all the January 6th tapes available to ALL Americans." [Tweet]
US
halts exports of most civilian firearms for 90 days. The U.S. has stopped issuing
export licenses for most civilian firearms and ammunition for 90 days for all non-governmental
users, the Commerce Department said on Friday, citing national security and foreign policy
interests. The Commerce Department did not provide further details for the pause, which also
includes shotguns and optical sights, but said an urgent review will assess the "risk of firearms
being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights,
or fuel criminal activities." [...] Export licences for Ukraine and Israel, as well as some other
close allies, will be exempted from the temporary halt in exports.
IRS
Can Enter 'Anyone's House at Any Time': Abuse Detailed in New Weaponization Report.
An IRS agent showed up at the door of a Marion County, Ohio, woman and lied about his reason for
being there. Once inside, the Internal Revnue Service agent, purporting to be named Bill
Haus, began to harass and intimidate the taxpayer, according to a congressional report released
Friday. The woman called a lawyer, who told the IRS agent to leave the home since the
taxpayer had gotten no prior notice of unpaid taxes. "I am an IRS agent. I can be at
and go into anyone's house at any time I want to be," responded the agent, who was using a phony
name, according to the report from the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of
the Federal Government. Under pressure from Congress, the IRS discontinued its policy of
unannounced home visits in July.
How
Did Biden Manage To Lose $300 Billion? Friday afternoon, the Treasury Department
reported that, despite a growing economy and low unemployment, the federal deficit shot up by $320 billion
in fiscal year 2023. That's unusual. But what's really bizarre is why the deficit
exploded. According to the report, overall spending actually dropped by 2%
compared with 2022 as the COVID-19 spending splurge abated. What drove up the deficit this
year was a sudden and completely unexpected 9% drop in tax revenues. Not only did
revenues come up hundreds of billions lower than last year, but they were well below what everybody
expected them to be. At the start of the year, the Treasury Department and the Office of
Management and Budget projected revenues for fiscal 2023 at around $4.7 trillion. The
Congressional Budget Office figured it would be $4.8 trillion. The actual amount:
$4.4 trillion. In other words, there's between $300 billion and $400 billion
worth of missing tax revenues.
SCOTUS Takes
Up Free Speech Case. Late Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Missouri
v. Biden, a case that may end the Biden administration's circumvention of the First
Amendment by outsourcing censorship to Big Tech. The case was initially filed by the states
of Missouri and Louisiana, along with various private plaintiffs who allege that social media
platforms censored them at the behest of federal agencies. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty
ruled for the plaintiffs on July 4, enjoining the agencies from communicating with platforms about
"content moderation." The Biden administration sought relief from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
and lost again, making a Supreme Court clash inevitable.
Pfizer
Crashes After Slashing Profit Guidance By More Than Half On Collapsing Demand For Covid
Meds. Pfizer just lobbed a legendary Friday evening bomb when it slashed its revenue
and earnings forecasts for the year as it agreed to take returns from the US of its Covid antiviral
Paxlovid amid collapsing demand. Waiting patiently until after the market closed on Friday,
the company said it now sees 2023 revenue of only $58 billion to $61 billion, down
$9 billion from its previous estimate of $67 billion to $70 billion.
Biden
admin issues restrictions on gas furnaces in latest war on appliances. The Biden
administration announced its latest regulatory action targeting home appliances late Friday, this
time targeting popular home gas-powered furnaces. The Department of Energy (DOE) said the
energy efficiency regulations would slash household utility costs by $1.5 billion on an annual
basis while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector. The proposal,
according to the agency, require non-weatherized gas furnaces and those used in mobile homes to
achieve a far higher level of efficiency than cheaper models on the market. "At the direction
of Congress, DOE is continuing to review and finalize energy standards for household appliances,
such as residential furnaces, to lower costs for working families by reducing energy use and
slashing harmful pollutants in homes across the nation," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in
a statement.
Friday
Afternoon Statistic Dump — Border Patrol Reports Over 7.5 million Illegal Aliens
Released into U.S. During Biden Term. The Dept of Homeland Security, Customs and
Border Patrol (CBP) waiting until Friday afternoon to [release] the latest statistics on illegal
alien apprehensions at the U.S. southern border. As a current surge is underway, the August
apprehension rate was 304,162, the highest of any month so far on record. Since Joe Biden
took office over 7.5 million illegal aliens have been encountered and released into the United
States. Of that number 5.18 million were single adult males. This is a wholesale
invasion of illegal aliens on a scale never before fathomed. Joe Biden has created this
crisis, and it is getting worse.
Biden
Lays a Booby Trap for a Republican President. The Biden administration is setting a
booby trap in case a Republican wins the presidency in 2024. On Friday, the White House
unveiled a proposed rule that would make it even harder than in the past for an incoming Republican
president to wrestle control of the left-leaning federal bureaucracy and actually implement the
conservative policies promised to voters.
Greenwich
High School Surprises With New Digital ID And Surveillance App, Parents Not Informed Until After
Students Told To Download App On Personal Phone. On September 14, 2023, Greenwich
High School (GHS) students received a notification from Karen Foster, the Director of Student
Activities, immediately requiring them to download the Minga app onto their phones because the
school had decided to implement digital IDs in order to track them and to provide important
announcements. Physical IDs will not be provided to students with phones. [...] Parents were
not notified about this sweeping invasion of privacy until Friday evening — well after
many students had already complied with this latest intrusion by Superintendent Toni Jones.
Special
Counsel Jack Smith Files to Shut Trump Up. In a late Friday evening news dump it was
revealed Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion earlier this week seeking a gag order against
former President Donald Trump. The motion was unsealed by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya
Chutkan who is overseeing Smith's January 6 case against Trump. "On Friday afternoon, U.S.
District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed filings revealing the government's week-old request,
arguing that Trump is undermining the fairness of the proceedings through "disparaging and
inflammatory attacks" on prosecutors, witnesses and the judge in the case," POLITICO first
reported. In the motion, Smith requests Chutkan limit what Trump is allowed to say about DOJ
prosecutors, the FBI, Chutkan, Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike
Pence, former Attorney General Bill Barr and more.
Can
Biden's Jobs Number Be Trusted Any More? President Joe Biden has staked so much on
his claim that he's "created" 13.5 million jobs since taking office that it's worth asking if his
Labor Department is now goosing job growth figures to help him out. On Friday just before the
holiday weekend, Labor released its estimates for job growth in August — which it said
worked out to 187,000, beating economists' forecasts. But at the same time, the government
cut the job growth numbers for the previous two months by a total of 110,000. As a matter of
fact, Labor has quietly cut its initial job growth estimates for every month this year.
Hunter
Biden document dump over the weekend. If you have been following the Hunter Biden
legal case over the past thousand years or so, this weekend's revelations should interest you.
[...] I would speculate that they were leaked by Hunter's team for their own reasons. [...] Biden's
attorneys wanted an ironclad deal in writing to ensure no future prosecution, which eventually led
to the current mess everybody has found themselves in. Weiss was prepared to drop the matter
entirely, but when the IRS whistleblowers came forward he decided he needed some face-saving plea
from Biden. With such explosive charges on the table, he needed to at least give Hunter a haircut.
6
Takeaways From The Hunter Biden Special Counsel Appointment You Won't Hear From Big
Media. Friday's news dump featured an announcement by Attorney General Merrick
Garland that he had named Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel to continue the
investigation into Hunter Biden "as well as any matters that arose from that investigation or may
arise from the Special Counsel's investigation." While the official appointment order barely
filled a page and the attorney general's accompanying comments provided little additional texture,
the news is hugely significant.
The
President Finally recognized his grandkid in a slimy statement snuck out Friday. Joe
Biden has apparently decided that its become a political liability to be a bad granddad. So,
in an exclusive statement to People Magazine on Friday, the President conceded, for the first-time,
that he has seven grandkids, not six. Did you miss that news? In fact, that's exactly
what the cynical old man in the White House and his campaign team wanted. Why else would they
make the announcement to a celebrity news website at 5:02 PM ET on a summer Friday, when the
thoughts of most Americans have mercifully wandered from politics to barbecues, pools and family.
Biden
admin crackdown on water heaters would go into effect in 2029 as it targets more home
appliances. The Biden administration's newest crackdown on home appliances,
specifically water heaters, would take effect in 2029 if its regulatory proposal is enacted as it
continues to implement its aggressive energy efficiency campaign. White House press secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday acknowledged the president was going after home appliances. The
newest target is water heaters. A Department of Energy (DOE) proposal released late Friday
said new regulations would ultimately "accelerate deployment" of electric heat pump water heaters,
claiming it would save Americans billions of dollars and reduce carbon emissions.
The Editor says...
[#1] Why does the Department of Energy exist? [#2] Unfortunately, I have a "heat pump"
HVAC system in my house. If the outdoor temperature exceeds 102°F., which happens very often
in the summer, the air conditioner can't catch up. In the winter, if the outdoor temperature
goes below 40°F., the heat pump can't cut it. The heat pump hasn't saved any money
because it almost never stops. When it's 20° outside, is a heat pump really going to
make 40 gallons of water hot enough to wash dishes? Of course not. Is
this innovation going to "save American billions of dollars," when only about
8 million*
water heaters are sold every year? Certainly not. [##] If a new type of appliance has
any merit, the free market will get it into every home, without the government having to mandate it.
GOP
lawmakers slam Biden administration's proposed clamp down on home water heaters.
Water heaters could soon be subject to much more stringent efficiency requirements if a recent
Department of Energy proposal that has been criticized by Republican lawmakers goes into
effect. In a draft rule unveiled Friday, the Biden administration is seeking to compel most
electric water heaters to deploy heat pump technology and gas-fired ones to use condensing technology.
Biden
administration proposes tighter efficiency rule for new home water heaters. The Biden
administration on Friday proposed tightening an efficiency standard for new residential water
heaters — a move that it said would both save consumers money and combat climate
change. The draft rule would require that, in order to become more efficient, most
common-size electric water heaters use heat pump technology and gas-powered heaters use condensing
technology. The proposal from the Energy Department would cut 501 million metric tons of
carbon dioxide emissions over 30 years, the department said. That's the equivalent of the
emissions of 134 coal-fired power plants in one year.
The Editor says...
First of all, nobody has provided any reason to avoid the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
and even if such a reason exists, India and China are ignoring it. Second, any assertion that this new rule
will "save consumers money and combat climate change" is a lie. Competition and free markets save the
consumers money. The consumers will decide what kind of technology suits them. Capitalism works
great, for everybody but the government bureaucrats. No rule or law will "combat climate change."
All the laws in the world will not stop "cold and heat, and summer and winter, and
day and night."*
Any time the federal government wants to mandate some technology that is not already widely popular, it means the technology
will be less efficient, more costly, more inconvenient, and less reliable. Why? Because if everybody switched over
to heat pumps and really liked them, the rest of us would have already bought heat pumps by now. If nobody liked natural
gas stoves, the market would have phased them out by now. Always assume that the politician who is gung ho about
solar-powered doorstops (or something equally stupid) is a politician whose brother-in-law is in that business.
Did
U.S. Attorney David Weiss Confirm IRS Whistleblower's Allegations? Last month, we
learned from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley that U.S. Attorney David Weiss told multiple witnesses
the DOJ had instructed him not to pursue charges against Hunter Biden in California and Washington,
D.C. This conflicted with Weiss's and Attorney General Merrick Garland's public assertions that
Weiss had complete authority in his investigation. The New York Times confirmed
Shapley's claims last week, and now Weiss has confirmed them as well. House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) recently called on Weiss to clarify his past claims of
having full authority, giving him a deadline of July 6 to respond. Weiss responded on
Friday night in a letter.
U.S.
Attorney David Weiss' Response to Jim Jordan Is the Definition of a 'Friday News Dump'.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss has caused plenty of confusion when it comes to whether or not he has had full
authority to charge Hunter Biden. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) had recently
sent him a letter demanding clarification about a letter Weiss had sent to the Committee indicating he
had full authority, in response to a letter that Jordan had sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Jordan had given Weiss a deadline of July 6. Almost a full week before the deadline, though,
Weiss sent a letter to Jordan on Friday night. It's not only a "Friday night news dump," it's one
before the holiday weekend. IRS whistleblower Gary Shapling had said that Weiss did not actually
have the full authority to bring charges and that he told six witnesses he did not. Shapling has
given interviews as well as gone before congressional committees. Last week, however, Attorney
General Merrick Garland had indicated that Weiss did have such authority. The crux of the
letter is that Shapling was right, though it took some time for Weiss' letter to get there.
Friday
night document dump: Afghanistan pullout a huge failure, State Department report says.
Slipped out under the radar ahead of a long Fourth of July weekend on a Friday night, the State
Department's report on the U.S. pullout on Afghanistan in 2021 is out, and it's a beaut. [...] As
usual, the Biden administration was concerned about 'optics' -- to the very point of putting
American lives at danger, leaving some ten thousand allies behind, flying in more than ten thousand
Afghani illegals with no right to be here, and ruining American prestige abroad as China cleaned up
in Iraq on its oil, and Russia launched plans to invade Ukraine. Note the Jimmy Carteresque
reasoning on failing to make plans because they didn't want to send any signals suggesting that
they could imagine any problems post-pullout ... so, they didn't plan for any problems,
either. These things are on Biden, and the complete failure to plan for problems during the
pullout. Biden further completed the public-relations focus on the disaster by hiding from
the public at Camp David while the disaster was unfolding, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken
had more important business to take care of in the Hamptons as U.S. troops were losing their lives
to a suicide bomber and American standing abroad was crashing and burning.
Biden
Admin Pulls a Fast One, Swiftly Changed Status of Five Foreign Terror Groups Friday. In a time-honored move
known as the Friday news dump, with our federal government discarding any news or documents it would prefer to be buried and
see little to no serious examination or media coverage, the Biden Administration informed Congress on Friday [5/13/2022] that
it is about to move five foreign terror groups off the so-called blacklist. [...] The reporting by Fox News on this story
brings up something RedState has kept an eye on for a while: the concept that the Biden Administration, which has shown it is
too lax for comfort about the safety and security of the American people, might be making this move as a test-run of sorts
for removing another group from the list: the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Flynn
Attorney Sidney Powell Releases Statement on Flynn Transcripts. DNI John Ratcliffe released the Flynn-Kislyak
transcripts on Friday afternoon [5/29/2020]. Ratcliffe sent the transcripts to Senators Grassley, Ron Johnson. The
transcripts were copied to Democrat Senators Dianne Feinstein and Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, Devin Nunes and Adam
Schiff. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released the transcripts on Friday afternoon.
Mueller
Report Fizzles. Prepare For The Reckoning. First of all, of course everyone should wait to see the
contents of the actual Mueller report before drawing any specific final conclusions about it. But here are some laws of
nature in the modern age: If that report contained a fraction of the damaging material breathlessly awaited in the
media culture for two years, there would be some smoke signal of it. Instead, we saw an actual finding from the Justice
Department that there would be no further indictments from the probe. No indictment of Trump. No indictment of
anyone associated with the campaign or the administration to support the narrative of Russia collusion. Also, timing is
everything. Friday's close of business is where stories go to die. As the Mueller report seized the news late in
the day, TV viewership was a fraction of what it would have been on a Monday morning or a Wednesday midday.
Robert
Mueller submits full report on Russia probe. Special counsel Robert Mueller has submitted his report on Russian
meddling in the US election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign to Attorney General William Barr, the Justice
Department said Friday [3/21/2019]. Justice notified Congress late Friday that it had received Mueller's report but did
not disclose any of its conclusions.
DHS
Chooses Late Friday Afternoon to Announce 15,000 more H-2B Visas. The Department of Homeland Security announced
at 3:46 pm today that it will allow various U.S. employers 15,000 additional H-2B workers this summer; they will do unskilled,
non-agricultural seasonal work. Most work in landscaping or forestry; agricultural workers come in on the H-2A visa.
The 15,000 will be in addition to the 66,000 permits in this program that have already been issued in keeping with the
long-standing statutory ceiling.
State
Department releases Huma Abedin emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop. The State Department on Friday [12/29/2017]
released a batch of work-related emails from the account of top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin that were discovered by the FBI on
a laptop belonging to Abedin's estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign. At least
four of the documents released Friday are marked "classified." One November 2010 document that was released shows Abedin forwarding
an email to an address titled "Anthony Campaign." Former FBI Director James Comey said during a congressional hearing earlier this
year that he believed Abedin regularly forwarded emails to Weiner for him to print out so she could give them to Clinton.
Anthony
Weiner had classified emails belonging to wife Huma Abedin on his laptop. At least five emails determined to be
classified were found among 2,800 documents stored on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, whose then-wife Huma Abedin was
deputy chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The State Department released hundreds of pages of
materials Friday afternoon [12/29/2017], including a total of eight pages classified at the 'confidential level,' the third
most sensitive level the U.S. government uses. The confidential classification level is applied to information whose
unauthorized disclosure 'reasonably could be expected to cause damage to national security,'
A list of Friday document dumps: Obama
Administration Announces 144 Big Regulations Right Before Thanksgiving. President Obama is nothing if not predictable.
Required by law to release plans for new regulations twice a year, the administration has consistently done so just before major holidays,
when few are paying attention. Thus, it was no surprise to see his fall 2015 regulatory agenda released last Friday, as many Americans
focused on Thanksgiving week with family and friends.
FBI
Quietly Releases 300 Pages Of Hillary Clinton Investigation Records. The FBI quietly released nearly 300 pages
of records from its investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server on Sunday night [1/8/2017]. This is the fifth
release of Clinton investigation records from the FBI. The documents deal with the handling of computer hardware collected from
Clinton's lawyers for the investigation and also contain emails from FBI officials discussing the classification of Clinton's emails.
The
Mysterious FBI Sunday Document Dump #5 and The "Missing" Clinton Seagate Hard Drive. As many of you are aware
the FBI mysteriously dumped 300 pages of investigative material in an unusual Sunday evening document dump. The timing
and content of the FBI release are curious and a few people are attempting to understand what's going on. It has taken
us a full day to look over the #5 release and scour it for information. There's some rather interesting findings.
What follows below may possibly indicate a motive, and might also outline an internal effort within the FBI to push forward:
a.) action by President Obama on behalf of Hillary Clinton, vis-a-vis a pardon; or, b.) action by the incoming administration
to ensure criminal charges.
FBI
Dumps 300 Hillary Pages of Documents on Sunday Night. The FBI published around 300 pages of documents
associated with Hillary Clinton's email investigation on Sunday night [1/8/2017] when the most of us enjoyed football,
hockey, or the Golden Globes. [...] Back in October, reports surfaced over possible "quid pro quo" between the State
Department and FBI over the reclassification of the emails. An FBI official said that Undersecretary of State Patrick
Kennedy bribed him to change some of the emails. Kennedy said "in exchange for marking the email unclassified, STATE
would reciprocate by allowing the FBI to place more Agents in countries where they are presently forbidden. [...] Kennedy
tried to convince the officials "to issue a B9 FOIA exemption on another email that 'caused problems for Kennedy' so that it
would 'end up in the basement' 'never to be seen again.'" Yeah, that email had to do with the Benghazi attacks.
FBI deletes details about
hacking effort in document release. The FBI has released 100 pages of heavily censored documents related to its agreement with
an unidentified vendor to hack into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters, but it did not identify whom it paid to
perform the work or how much it cost.
FBI
blacks out most details on hack of terrorist's iPhone. A heavily redacted Friday evening data dump by the FBI
revealed almost nothing about how the agency was able to break into the locked iPhone of one of the gunmen in the December
terrorist attack in San Bernardino. The Justice Department released close to 100 pages of records in response to a
lawsuit by USA TODAY and two other news organizations. The suit, filed on September 16, 2016, sought information about
how the agency was able to break into a locked iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook. The attack by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen
Malik, killed 14 people and wounded 22 others. Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State as the attack began.
Obama
Quietly Signs the "Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act" Into Law. Late on Friday [12/23/2016], with
the US population embracing the upcoming holidays and oblivious of most news emerging from the administration, Obama quietly
signed into law the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which authorizes $611 billion for the military in 2017.
[...] But while the passage of the NDAA — and the funding of the US military — was hardly a surprise, the biggest news is
what was buried deep inside the provisions of the Defense Authortization Act. Recall that as we reported in early June,
"a bill to implement the U.S.' very own de facto Ministry of Truth had been quietly introduced in Congress.
As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of
2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information.
Air
Force Announces It Will Mandate Diversity Quotas In Candidate Pools For Key Positions. The Air Force announced
a new set of 13 inclusion initiatives Friday [9/30/2016] with the goal of ensuring the force isn't as white, male and heterosexual as it
is now. Air Force officials are intent on building upon a foundation of nine initiatives from 2015, in order to boost
diversity. Those nine initiatives weren't enough to make the Air Force as diverse as desired, which is why it is taking
more intensive steps in 2016.
Obama
Administration Admits Their Omar Mateen Narrative Was [a Lie]. Months after the fact, it comes out, in the form
of one those Friday night document drops the regime uses when they wasnt to bury a story, that Omar Mateen had been heavily
invested in ISIS propaganda for a long time.
FBI
doc dump on email case reveals role of 'confidential' Clinton aide. The details were contained in the latest
document dump of FBI files on Clinton's personal email use. The FBI chose late Friday afternoon [9/23/2016] to release
nearly 200 highly redacted pages of so-called "302" files from the bureau's investigation, a release that quickly became
overshadowed by the impending presidential debate Monday. But the files included new details of the tech intervention
by Clinton aide Huma Abedin and Clinton Foundation official Justin Cooper — and a third individual, a Hillary
Clinton aide named Monica Hanley.
Orlando killer
repeatedly referenced ISIS, transcript shows. Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people at the Pulse
nightclub in Orlando in June, repeatedly told a police hostage negotiator that he was a soldier of ISIS and that the United
States had to stop its bombing in Syria and Iraq, according to a police transcript released Friday [9/23/2016].
27
things we learned from Clinton's FBI files. A 189-page summary of interviews conducted in the year-long
investigation of Hillary Clinton's private server shed new light on the shifting stories Clinton's aides told agents.
The report, which was made public Friday evening [9/23/2016], came on the heels of House Republicans' revelation that three additional
witnesses had received immunity agreements from the Justice Department, bringing the total number of witnesses who were
shielded from prosecution to five. Here are 27 new details that emerged from the latest FBI documents.
Obama
reportedly used pseudonym to email with Clinton on her private server. President Obama used a pseudonym when
sending or receiving emails through the private server system Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state, according to nearly
200 pages of documents released Friday [9/23/2016] by the FBI.
How's
the Coverup Going, Hillary? Yesterday the FBI did another Friday afternoon document dump, consisting of more
documents relating to its investigation of Hillary Clinton's email security breaches. The Washington Examiner spotted
this hilarious item from an interview of a Platte River Networks employee who referred in 2014 to "the Hilary coverup operation."
What
Happens When You Can't Trust the FBI and the Department of Justice? In a stunning Friday (isn't it always?) revelation, we found out that yet
another key figure from Hillary Clinton's "rat pack" — her former chief-of-staff Cheryl Mills — was given immunity in the email server investigation.
As Ed Morrissey points out, that makes "at least five" — who knows how many there really are — who have received this treatment. So far that's
techies Bryan Pagliano and Paul Combetta (more of him in a moment), John Bentel of the Office of Information Resources Management, and Heather Samuelson,
an aide to Mrs. Clinton. How much the public knows of their immunized testimony is clear — nothing.
Judge
Nap: FBI Report Could Be 'Catastrophic Politically' for Hillary. On "Fox and Friends" this morning [9/6/2016], Judge
Napolitano explained that Clinton told FBI investigators — who were looking into her mishandling of state secrets —
that she was unaware what it meant if documents were marked "classified," "secret" or "top secret." "That sort of obliviousness
lessens the criminality in the mind of the FBI, but that sort of obliviousness, is that what you want in the mind of a secretary of
state or of a president of the United States?" Judge Napolitano said.
The
FBI Found Clinton's Smoking Gun, Threw It Away, and Told Us on Labor Day Weekend. It's Labor Day weekend, and
I'm doing exactly what the FBI, the mainstream media, and Hillary Clinton expect me to be doing today. Nothing.
Maybe some football. Not reading through the FBI's notes on the Clinton investigation. In this, their scheme
worked. Dump the data when America is completely disconnected and distracted, knowing that sometime in the next 48 hours
Donald Trump will save Clinton by doing or saying something to make a headline. The country will move on by Tuesday.
FBI
holiday weekend document drop is devastating to Hillary. The decision to wait for late Friday on Labor Day
weekend to release the FBI's investigation notes of Hillary Clinton's email practices offers further evidence of the
politicization of the agency. As the United States slides into a banana republic, we now know that a political thumb is
on the scale at the two most feared federal agencies: the IRS and the FBI. Still, one can understand why the Hillary
faction wanted to obscure the documents, for they contain toxic revelations that disqualify Hillary Clinton from the presidency.
FBI
Releases Hillary Clinton Email Investigation Files. On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released its
interview with Hillary Clinton regarding the former Secretary of State's handling of classified information. [...] The documents
reveal that, during her time in office, Clinton lost several mobile telephones carrying e-mails from her private server.
Clinton's top-aide Huma Abedin and former Clinton aide Monica Hanley indicated, according to the report, that "the whereabouts
of Clinton's [mobile] devices would frequently become unknown once she transitioned to a new device." Abedin also admitted
that the former Secretary of State was accustomed to using the 8th floor balcony of the State Department building to check
her emails — despite knowing she was not allowed to use her mobile devices in her office, the files reveal.
This
Friday Afternoon FBI Clinton Document Dump is [Unfair]. Friday afternoon [9/2/2016] just as everybody was
getting ready to leave for the long holiday weekend, why of course, the FBI decided to release the damning files from their
Hillary Clinton investigation! [...] Despite the overall inconvenience/bitterness from us journalists, today's document dump
ensures that pretty much no one from the public will focus their attention on what the FBI found — including
revelations about how Clinton apparently doesn't remembering going through training regarding the handling of classified information
or — how she didn't know that "C" meant classified. By Tuesday, all of that will be old news. This isn't
the first time that the FBI's timing as it relates to the Clinton investigation has drawn scrutiny.
Post-Convention
News Dump: Obama Lets Some US Planes Land in Iran. The Obama administration has approved U.S. civilian
jets owned by foreign carriers to travel to Iran for 72 hours, according to a notice issued by the U.S. Treasury late Friday
afternoon [7/29/2016]. The announcement came less than 24 hours after the Democratic National Convention concluded in
Philadelphia, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted her party's nomination for the presidency. Clinton
backed the Iran deal, and has taken credit for helping start the talks, with an adviser saying she was "centrally involved"
at the time.
Obama
Orders Fed Agencies to Stop Asking Job Applicants about Criminal History. To make public-sector jobs more
accessible to convicts, President Obama has issued a new order prohibiting federal agencies from asking candidates about
criminal history when applying for positions. It's part of the commander-in-chief's mission to reduce barriers to
reentry and employment for incarcerated individuals once they leave jail. The new measure, announced in a Friday media
dump, will affect tens of thousands of federal government positions funded with taxpayer dollars. Government often
tries to escape fallout by burying controversial or bad news right before the weekend, but it's difficult to keep this
outrageous development below the radar.
State
Department releases more than 1,100 documents to Benghazi committee. The State Department on Friday turned over
more than 1,100 pages of records to the House Select Committee on Benghazi, over a year after the committee first requested
them for their ongoing investigation into the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya. The committee's
chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., also criticized the State Department's delayed response to the request. The
records released included emails from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's then-chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and
Clinton aides Jake Sullivan, Human Abedin, as well as then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, according
to a statement from the Congressional committee.
State
Dept. releases personal emails from Clinton's inner circle. State Department officials on Friday handed over
1,100 pages of documents demanded by the the House Select Committee on Benghazi, two years after congressional investigators
requested them. "It is deplorable that it took over a year for these records to be produced to our committee, and that
our Democrat colleagues never lifted a finger to help us get them," committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said Friday
evening. "Shame on them and everyone else who has demanded this committee to give up before gathering all of the facts."
Obama
relents on Fast & Furious executive privilege, turns records over to Congress. The Obama administration caved to a judge's
order Friday [4/8/2016] and sent documents from the botched Fast & Furious gun-running operation to Congress, complying with a subpoena
the House Oversight Committee issued years ago. President Obama had claimed executive privilege in trying to shield the documents
from Congress, but a federal judge rejected that, insisting lawmakers had a right to see the information in order to complete their
investigation into an operation that saw thousands of guns trafficked into Mexico, with the administration's knowledge. With just
hours to go before the judge's 60-day deadline, the administration complied Friday [4/8/2016].
If
you can't prosecute Hillary Clinton, then you can't prosecute Edward Snowden. In the latest Friday night document dump 2,000 Hillary Clinton
emails were made public. Twenty two of them were not released, as they were considered "too damaging" to even release in redacted form. The
State Department has been dragging its feet in releasing the Clinton emails and won't meet a Court ordered deadline to release the remaining emails due
to an "internal oversight." Now the Clinton campaign wants the Top Secret emails made public.
Hillary
Clinton Campaign Meltdown: Top-Secret Emails 'Innocuous,' Should Be Released. This week's Friday afternoon news
drop was a blockbuster for Hillary Clinton, with revelations that some of her emails contained information so sensitive they
cannot be released to the public at all, others will be delayed beyond the first few primaries by the State Department, and
the number of Top Secret documents in her homebrew private email server has risen to 22.
Last
Night's State Department Email Dump: The Most Damning for Hillary Yet. With a classification rate of nearly 27 percent,
this was the most highly classified batch of emails yet, despite the fact the State Department only produced 10 percent of the emails
it was required to under court order. And given the State Department's claim that many of the emails they withheld were still being
reviewed by other agencies as well as the steep increase in the number of emails classified as 'SECRET,' it appears Hillary Clinton's email
woes are only going to get worse. Indeed, many redactions in last night's production had to do with information from several intelligence
agencies including the CIA. No wonder Clinton's friends in the State Department are trying to delay further releases until she's
cleared the early nominating contests. Here are some of the most eye-popping emails from last night's release [...]
Feds dump
heavily redacted Benghazi emails on Christmas Eve. The documents, released ahead of the Christmas holiday, include mostly blacked-out emails
and some press clippings about events in Libya after the attack on the U.S. embassy, which left four Americans dead. The event has become a central
part of Republican criticism of Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State as she runs for president. A few of the heavily redacted emails discuss
the drafting of an assessment of the threat level before the attack occurred. Congress had requested the assessment in the months after the attack.
The
surprising reason behind Obama's aggressive drive to regulate you more. As is the wont of the self-described
most transparent administration in history, Obama issued a massive, record-setting list of upcoming rules late last week in
the shadow of a national holiday. You may have missed the latest list of 2,000 aggressive new rules, including 144 that
will cost at least $100 million each. You were supposed to miss the list, the Unified Agenda. It's set by law,
but not the surreptitious timing. There'll be hundreds more on another list in six months. Rules on employers, banks,
restaurants, importers. You name it.
Obama
Turns Thanksgiving Into Rulesgiving. With little fanfare, the White House announced more than 2,000 new regulations —
including 144 deemed "economically significant" — just before Thanksgiving. The law requires doing this twice a year, and
Obama has followed it faithfully — repeatedly releasing rafts of costly new rules just days before holidays, when people are most
distracted and not paying attention. Luckily, Heritage Foundation fellow James Gattuso is paying attention. He notes that the
144 new economically significant rules is a record, breaking the previous high of 136 set just last spring.
Obama
Makes an Announcement Right Before Thanksgiving. Obama is doubling and tripling down on regulations that will
oppress Americans even more. And guess what? He did it just before Thanksgiving. He always does this just
before a holiday, so people will be too busy to notice until it's too late. This set of regulations breaks records and
the bank at the same time. Over 2,000 new regulations alone are in this batch. 144 are deemed 'significant' as
they will each cost $100 million and up. Obama had 136 of these 'significant' regulations last spring.
He's spending as fast as he can to drive us off the fiscal cliff and into the abyss before he leaves.
Obama
Quietly Releases Plans For 2,224 Regulations Ahead Of Turkey Day. While millions of Americans prepare to stuff
themselves with Turkey and pie, the Obama administration quietly released its plans for 2,224 federal rules Friday
[11/20/2015] — a preview of just how many more regulations the president is attempting to issue before he leaves
office. President Barack Obama's Unified Agenda for Fall 2015 is his administration's regulatory road map and lays out
thousands of regulations being finalized in the coming months. Obama has developed a habit of releasing the agenda late on
Friday before a major holiday.
Huma
Abedin, top Clinton aide, delivers 6,714 emails, 2,533 pages of documents. Huma Abedin, former Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton's close personal aide, has turned over 6,714 emails, and 2,533 pages of documents in printed and
electronic form, the Obama administration said in a court filing late Friday [9/11/2015]. Most of those materials were
finally turned over Sept. 1, and though the majority came in electronic form already, they will still need to be converted
to a searchable format, the State Department said. The department said it will take 60 days to convert the messages,
process them and begin releasing responsive documents.
'Friday
news dump': And the suspected Chinese hacking scandal just got worse. So it looks like
the hack of government personal records just got a whole lot worse. Now it's not just civilian
employee records that were hacked, but information related to security clearances for members of the
military and intelligence community as well.
While Hillary Slept.
Only the most conspiratorial among us suspected that the State Department's decision to release a
tranche of Hillary Clinton's private emails on the Friday before a long holiday weekend just might
be an effort to bury the revelations.
EPA
Proposes Its Most Expensive Regulation to Date. The strategy of publicly releasing bad
news late on a Friday afternoon in order to avoid significant media scrutiny is well established and
commonly employed by a variety of institutions. For example, corporations may elect to bury a bad
earnings report or government bodies may release unflattering documents just before the weekend when
people are paying the least amount of attention. [...] Although today is not a Friday, it is the day before
what will be a four-day holiday weekend for many Americans. While most people will understandably
be focusing on celebrating Thanksgiving with their families, the White House plans to quietly release
plans for 3,415 new regulations, 189 of which will cost more than $100 million apiece.
The Permanent
Campaign Continues. Every modern White House has put out news on contentious issues late on
Friday in the hope that doing so will bury it, or reduce the amount of critical scrutiny it would otherwise
receive. What is unusual is the degree to which this White House has relied on this tactic. ... Do
Friday news dumps work? Yes, but marginally. The White House press corps is generally exhausted
at the end of a long week. Congressional critics are either in route back home to their districts or
already there.
Promises, Promises:
Friday is still WH 'trash day'. President Barack Obama entered the White House promising a new
era of openness in government, but when it comes to bad news, his administration often uses one of the
oldest tricks in the public relations playbook: putting it out when the fewest people are likely
to notice.
Defense
Department Releases Flurry of Photos of Botched Plane Flyover. The Department of Defense released a
flurry of additional photos Friday [7/31/2009] of Air Force One's controversial Manhattan flyover in April.
A total of 146 photos were released of the April 27 incident, which panicked many local citizens and
prompted officials in the New York metropolitan area to question why the White House Military Office did not
make the mission more broadly known.
Friday Night
Hack Attack. On February 19, Attorney General Eric Holder took part in the time-honored
Washington tradition of dumping undesired news on Friday afternoons or evenings. ... This is bad news for
Holder and certain other Obama appointees at Justice — it undermines the story they've been telling
for years that the lawyers who found the CIA program lawful were sadistic criminals committed to torturing
poor souls such as Khalid Sheik Muhammad...
Living Legends. This month in
Chicago, an event will honor three men as "living legends." The men are Minister Louis Farrakhan, head
of the Nation of Islam, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of Barack Obama's church, and Father Michael
Pfleger, a radical-left Catholic priest. ... There are many interesting things about this exposition. First,
it has received almost no media coverage, even though Farrakhan, speaking before a crowd of 20,000 a few days ago,
accused the "white right" of planning the assassination of President Obama.
Not exactly terrorists.
Despite numerous requests from Senate Republicans for more information, the Justice Department waited
until Friday [3/26/2010], just as Congress was leaving town for a recess, finally to provide support
for Mr. Holder's assertions. At one point, the department ridiculously claimed that federal
regulations precluded it from providing such a list. ... Rather than bolstering Mr. Holder's position,
the data dump showed that Republicans were right to look askance at him.
National Security Mush.
President Obama's so proud of his new National Security Strategy that the White House released it on the eve of
a holiday weekend — when everybody in Washington's racing for the beach, the 'burbs or a bunker.
With good reason. This isn't a strategy. It's a stump speech.
White House says 51 percent of company health plans won't meet Obamacare guidelines.
Internal White House documents reveal that 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care
coverage by 2013 due to ObamaCare. That numbers soars to 66% for small-business employers. ... The
Associated Press is also on the story. Even they can't ignore the dishonesty that was used to sell the
health care overhaul.
Joe
Biden update: He's fined $219,000 for campaign violations. Due to an unfortunate (and no
doubt accidental) error of timing, the news of a nearly quarter-million-dollar federal fine levied against
the vice president of the United States, Joe "What Checks?" Biden, was announced Friday — a hot
summer day when hardly anyone was paying attention to anything but the tempting weekend at the next exit. ... A
Biden spokeswoman, who apparently uses a different money-measuring gauge than the 9.5% of Americans currently
unemployed, called the $219,000 penalty as "relatively small." It is equal to about 96% of a
vice president's annual salary.
Obamanomics: Kneecapping America's Future.
The Obama Administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) unloaded its disastrous mid-session budget
review in a Friday afternoon dump and run — updating its own budget projections from February.
By the administration's own analysis the forecast is bleak: 10% unemployment this year and a $1.47 trillion
deficit next year. The President's plan is to add crippling tax hikes to the unrestrained spending and
unprecedented deficits and debt.
Is the Fix In
at Justice? Announce bad news on a Friday afternoon, the rule in official Washington goes.
Attorney General Eric Holder seems to have a new corollary: Make bad appointments over holiday
breaks. It works. Holder's announcement on Christmas Eve that he was appointing Robin
Ashton as the new head of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) went virtually unnoticed
in the press, other than a highly complimentary article in the Washington Post.
A
Case Against TSA Unionization. Transportation Security Administration workers can now unionize
(but can't strike), thanks to a decision Friday [2/4/2011] from TSA Administrator John Pistole, and, to get
the case against this, I called the Workforce Fairness Institute, a group that advocates against union
organizing in both public and private sectors. Executive Director Katie Gage obligingly supplied
some arguments. "I think we should start unionizing the Coast Guard," Gage said. When I told her
I have a hereditary deficiency that prevents me from detecting irony, she elaborated: "I think it's clear
from the fact that it's occurring at three o'clock on a Friday afternoon that this is not something that the
administration is very proud of."
This happened on a Thursday, right before Christmas. EPA
Expands Climate Agenda to the Current Fleet of Power Plants and Refineries. On December 23,
2010, one day before the Yuletide season when Members of Congress, the media, and Tea Party activists are
least likely to watchdog the federal bureaucracy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced
rulemakings to establish New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power
plants and refineries. Or maybe "whispered" would be more accurate. If you didn't read the text
of EPA's press release and just skimmed the headline, you would not know the agency had just launched the
next phase of its greenhouse gas regulatory program.
This happened on a Thursday, right before the Super Bowl. More
'green' subsidies — er, investments — from Obama. Hidden among the news
hype of the Super Bowl last week was an announcement [Thursday, 2/3/2011] by the Obama administration of a
new spending program titled the Better Building Initiative (BBI). The purpose of the program is
"improving energy efficiency in our buildings [to] create jobs, save money, reduce our dependence on foreign
oil, and make our air cleaner." It really amounts to one more subsidy in the service of President
Obama's energy preferences.
The TSA Two-Step. The tale of
two Friday afternoon announcements as part of a plan to unionize TSA screeners and keep the process
quiet until it's complete.
Will
Dems put unions ahead of air safety? Air travelers and taxpayers alike are the biggest losers
in Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief John Pistole's decision to allow airport screeners to
collectively bargain. That may be why the decision was made public late Friday when it was bound to
attract minimal media coverage. Conversely, Democrats in Congress are the biggest winners.
President Obama Issues "Signing Statement" Indicating He Won't Abide
by Provision in Budget Bill. In a statement issued Friday night [4/15/2011], President Obama
took issue with some provisions in the budget bill — and in one case simply says he will not
abide by it. Last week the White House and congressional Democrats and Republicans were involved in
intense negotiations over not only the size of the budget for the remainder of the FY2011 budget, and
spending cuts within that budget, but also several GOP "riders," or policy provisions attached to the
bill. One rider — Section 2262 — de-funds certain White House adviser
positions — or "czars." The president in his signing statement declares that he will not
abide by it.
Over
Half of All Obamacare Waivers Given to Union Members. In what is fast becoming a weekly event,
the Obama administration granted 200 more companies waivers from the Democrats' sweeping health care law
in the Friday night news dump. That brings the number of companies receiving waivers to 1,372. Not
surprisingly, it helps to be a Democratic ally when seeking a waiver. The Republican Policy Committee
reports that over half of the workers that have been exempted so far belong to unions. (You can get a
full list of the companies exempted
here.)
New Fast and Furious docs released by
White House. Late Friday [9/30/2011], the White House turned over new documents in the Congressional
investigation into the ATF "Fast and Furious" gunwalking scandal. The documents show extensive communications
between then-ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell — who led Fast and Furious —
and then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly. Emails indicate the two also spoke on the
phone.
Eric
Holder Briefed Nearly a Year Before Previously Admitted. [Scroll down] Justice Department and ATF
officials have denied deliberatly allowing guns to be trafficked back to Mexico, yet a map revealed in the
Friday night document dump from the White House proves otherwise and shows the exact path of guns going to
different destinations in Mexico.
White
House staffer was informed about gun probe. Released late Friday night, the documents include
emails over a month-long period last year between William D. Newell, then-ATF special agent in charge of
the Phoenix field division, and then-White House National Security staffer Kevin O'Reilly.
Doc
Dump: White House Knew. In a classic news-dampening maneuver, some, but not all, documents
requested by congressional investigators looking at administration gun-running were released late Friday [9/30/2011]
by the White House. Usually this is done to avoid the full impact of politically embarrassing or, in this case,
potentially incriminating news.
Solyndra loan supported by Obama fundraiser.
A prominent 2008 Barack Obama fundraiser who held a key role in the Energy Department played an active part in
Solyndra's $535 million loan guarantee despite conflict of interest concerns over his wife's work at a law
firm that also represented the California solar company, according to internal Obama administration emails
released Friday [10/7/2011].
Obamacare
waivers get axe in last-minute Friday night news dump. In what's appearing to be a last-minute
move to avoid scrutiny, President Barack Obama's administration announced late Friday that it is doing away
with Obamacare waivers. Obama administration official Steve Larsen said no new applications, or waiver
renewal applications, will be accepted after Sept. 22 this year. Larsen said politics was "absolutely
not" a part of the decision to do away with the controversial program, but it certainly looks that way with the
decision to dump the news on Friday. It's a common public relations practice to roll news out late on
Fridays when trying to shift attention away from controversial topics.
Solyndra: Incompetence or
Corruption? The current controversy surrounding the bankruptcy of Solyndra, the Obama administration's
green energy albatross, may be reaching critical mass. In yet another late Friday release of information,
a time-honored strategy designed to minimize media coverage of unpleasant truths, the White House has sent
Congressional investigators another 2000 pages of emails. Emails which implicate officials at the highest
levels of seniority within the administration.
First CLASS, What Next?
In a Friday bad-news dump that was a whopper even by its own standards, the Obama administration added to the
announcement of a near-record annual deficit and an escalation of undeclared war in Uganda the news that the
CLASS Act, an ill-conceived adjunct of the Affordable Care Act, is no more. The upshot is this:
Obamacare just got a whole lot more expensive than advertised, and there is reason to believe that its Democratic
architects have long known this would happen.
Obama
wears a white hat. Weirdest Friday news dump ever. Very late in the day on Oct. 14,
the Obama administration released a lot of politically problematic information, including the news that the
deficit for 2011 hit $1.3 trillion (the second biggest ever, after 2009) and that it's abandoning the CLASS
Act, one of the more expensive and unwieldy appendages of "Obamacare." One other thing: The White House
announced we're putting boots on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Great Stonewall of Obama. During
another trademark Friday news dump, the White House revealed that it would fight a GOP House subpoena for internal
documents related to the half-trillion-dollar, stimulus-funded, now-bankrupt Solyndra solar energy loan bust.
White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler fumed that the information request placed an "unreasonable burden on the
president's ability to meet his constitutional duties." ... While she paints the request as a last-minute
surprise, the White House has been stonewalling on Solyndra all year long.
Solyndra
Stonewall Breeched. No wonder the White House stonewalled on releasing Solyndra documents.
Last week's document dump is a lesson in why Washington has no business playing investment banker.
Did
you miss the Thanksgiving White House visitor log document dump? Just like clockwork, the Obama
administration never misses an opportunity to unload thousands of records it hopes no one will ever bother sifting
through during the holidays. On Black Friday [11/25/2011], the White House released more visitor log
info — trumpeting disclosures it has fought tooth and nail.
Obama's Cloud-Based Transparency.
For three years, White House officials have rolled out countless executive orders and initiatives touting open
government. Just this week, they unveiled plans to move federal archival records from a paper-based to an
electronic system. But behind the scenes, Obama's lawyers systematically have stymied public information
requests, carved out crater-sized disclosure loopholes, fought subpoenas on scandals from Fast and Furious to
Solyndra, and made routine the holiday document dump.
MSM
Ignores Obama Admin's Fast And Furious Friday Afternoon Docu-Dump. Despite the fact the social media has eliminated
the traditional media cycle, the Obama administration still thinks Friday afternoon document dumps will curtail reporting on what the
documents entail. Our wonderful Department of Justice dumped over 1,000 pages with details on how they gave inaccurate
information.
Schumer bro-in-law judge
nod stuns NJ. Sen. Charles Schumer's brother-in-law was quietly nominated this month to a federal
judgeship in New Jersey — a move that has some in the Garden State crying political foul, The [New York]
Post has learned. Kevin McNulty, who is married to Schumer's sister, Fran, was named to the US District
Court by the White House late on Friday, Dec. 16.
White
House sends GOP another batch of Solyndra documents. The White House on Friday [1/13/2012] sent more
internal documents to Republicans investigating the $535 million loan guarantee to failed solar firm Solyndra,
arguing that the cache of emails should satisfy GOP investigators.
Latest
Friday night document dump shows... Holder was informed of Brian Terry's murder on day Fast &
Furious weapons killed border agent Attorney General Eric Holder's Department of Justice dumped documents related
to Operation Fast and Furious on congressional officials late Friday night. Central to this document dump
is a series of emails showing Holder was informed of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's murder on the day it
happened — December 15, 2010.
DOJ
dodges, won't say if Holder knew 'Fast and Furious' gun killed border guard. The documents sent
from the DOJ to congressional officials Friday night included a series of emails between former Arizona U.S.
Attorney Dennis Burke and Holder's then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson. Those emails show Wilkinson,
a senior Holder aide, knew on December 15, 2010 — the day Terry was killed — that
the weapons used to murder him were provided to a Mexican gang by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives.
Eric
Holder's False Testimony Warrants Impeachment. In the latest Friday night document dump — news
released as to minimize its scandalous impact on the White House — congressional investigators learned
that Attorney General Holder knew all along that a gun his Justice Department intentionally let fall into
the hands of Mexico's cartels was used to murder U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on Dec. 15, 2010.
Covering Up Fast & Furiously.
Last week's Friday document dump by the DoJ once again added to the widely held belief that that the AG and his minions are hiding
something from Congress and the American people, but what?
Your
Friday IRS regulation dump: Obamacare's job-killing medical device tax. While Obama sycophants are
busy trumpeting deceptive jobs numbers, the administration is quietly moving forward with job-killing Obamacare
regs and taxes. The IRS today released rules to impose the $20 billion Obamacare medical device tax
scheduled to take effect next year. At a time when the White House is touting its government initiatives
to champion "innovation," the Obamacare innovation tax on medical device/diagnostic manufacturers will kill an
estimated 43,000 jobs.
White
House gives up more Solyndra docs. Amid threats by a top House Republican to pursue contempt charges,
the White House on Friday sent lawmakers more internal documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee to
failed solar firm Solyndra. The White House, in providing the 313 pages of documents, again denied
that approval of the loan guarantee in 2009 was influenced by politics, an allegation that Republicans have
repeated for months.
Taxing Medical
Progress to Death. In typical Obama-transparent fashion, the Internal Revenue Service quietly released
a complex thicket of medical device tax implementation rules in a Friday document dump earlier this month.
Barring congressional intervention, the medical device tax will go into full effect in 2013.
Friday
document dump: Holder's DOJ releases more on 'Fast and Furious'. In what has become a pattern, Attorney
General Eric Holder dumped more documents related to Operation Fast and Furious on congressional investigators late
Friday [3/16/2012]. Terry Frieden of CNN reported that Holder coughed up "hundred of pages" of documents.
Assuming that means Holder did not produce more than 1,000 documents, the Justice Department is still far from
compliance with lawful congressional subpoenas.
Another F&F 'doc dump' as
interest renewed in probe. The late Friday document dump — presumably so it will get
lost in the weekend — has become a habit of Eric Holder's Justice Department in the on-going Congressional
probe of Operation Fast and Furious, so yesterday's [3/16/2012] reported delivery should be nothing new. The controversial
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun running sting has been under scrutiny for more than one year.
Obama
Blows Off Congress, Funds Palestinians, Lies About PA Stance on Israel. President Obama has decided to provide $192 million to the
Palestinian Authority despite Congress's freeze on PA funding after its president, Mahmoud Abbas, attempted to declare statehood unilaterally last
September, in violation of the PA's treaty commitments. Obama's "waiver" of the restrictions on Congress's Palestinian Accountability Act was
first reported in the foreign press (AFP), which is where Americans generally need to go to get news about what the U.S. administration is up to.
A New Declaration of
Independence. [Scroll down] Echoing the despot of old, Mr. Obama has "called together legislative
bodies" in such manner that makes the action less transparent for the "sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance
with his measures." So while he calls for creating easy-to-read, shorter bills, Mr. Obama creates monstrosities
of several thousand pages. He is famous for his Friday-night document dumps, pushing the legislation through
late on Friday evening when Congress has retired.
ObamaCare's Secret History.
On Friday [6/8/2012] House Republicans released more documents that expose the collusion between the health-care industry and the White
House that produced ObamaCare, and what a story of crony capitalism it is. If the trove of emails proves anything, it's that
the Tea Party isn't angry enough.
Friday night news dump: White
House salaries edition. The White House released its annual report to Congress on staff salaries. At 4:39 p.m. on Friday.
A quick review found the White House payroll appears to have grown since last year, going from $37.1 million in 2011 to $37.8 million in 2012.
The number of employees listed also grew — from 454 last year to 468 in 2012. White House officials did not immediately respond to a
message seeking explanation of the growth. Overall, the payroll has shrunk since 2009, when it totaled $39.1 million.
Obama's Legacy: $25 Trillion in Debt
by 2022. The Obama administration quietly released a new budget report Friday afternoon [7/27/2012] at a time calculated to make
sure it received minimal attention. The highlights of the new report are a pair of new estimates, the first of this year's deficit and the
second of projected debt 10 years from now.
Sure, He Supports The Troops. If the president supports the
troops, as he so often claims, he sure has a funny way of showing it. The Obama for America campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the
Democratic Party of Ohio quietly filed a lawsuit on [Friday] July 17th trying to limit the number of days which members of Armed Forces have
to participate in that state's early voting. Multiple veterans organizations are opposing the lawsuit.
Obama
administration tells contractors again: Don't issue layoff notices. The Obama administration issued new guidance
intended for defense contractors Friday afternoon [9/28/2012], reiterating the administration's position that the companies
should not be issuing layoff notices over sequestration. The Labor Department issued guidance in July saying it would be
"inappropriate" for contractors to issue notices of potential layoffs tied to sequestration cuts. But a few contractors, most
notably Lockheed Martin, said they still were considering whether to issue the notices — which would be sent out
just days before the November election.
Obama removes penalties for countries
using child soldiers. In a short memo released Friday [9/28/2012], President Barack Obama announced that he would waive economic penalties
for countries employing child soldiers, citing "the national interest" in doing so. The memo stated that all sanctions imposed under the Child
Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 would be waived for Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen, and portion's of the law's requirements would be lifted for the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. The exact interests requiring these waivers was not stated.
DUI Can't Keep Bundler From Bundling. On Friday [10/19/2012],
the Obama campaign disclosed its most recent list of campaign bundlers. Disgraced almost-ambassador Tim Broas is still listed as a bundler
committed to raising more than $500,000.
Pentagon will not label Fort Hood
shootings as terrorist attack. Late Friday, after 160 victims of the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting called on the Pentagon to label
the attack terrorism instead of workplace violence as it has for the past three years, the Department of Defense said it would not reclassify the
attack.
Cover-up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. [Scroll down] A
second intelligence source stated that "the announcement [of Petraeus' resignation] was carefully timed. It was announced in a Friday
afternoon news dump three days after the election, and days before the Senate Intelligence Committee was to hear his testimony, despite the
President having knowledge of these events weeks ago.
Foodstamps
Surge to All Time High. The Obama administration has finally released its report on the number of Americans receiving food stamps.
This report was released days after the 2012 election, nine days past its traditional release date. The numbers show that Americans on food stamps
is at an all time high. Worse, the report shows the highest one month jump ever recorded.
Foodstamps
Surge to All Time High. You may recall that just before the election, the Obama administration announced that Hurricane Sandy was going
to delay the release of October's jobless numbers. [...] While the unemployment report was ultimately released on schedule and before the election,
now we find out about another report, the food stamp report, delayed for nine days after its traditional release date. This report was also
supposed to have been released before the election. This report is devastating.
Foodstamps Surge By Most
In One Year To New All Time Record, In Delayed Release. [Scroll down] There was, however, another closely tracked number which
perhaps is far more indicative of the economic "growth" in the past 4 years, which certainly had a delayed release. The number of course
is that showing how many Americans are on foodstamps, and usually is released at the end of the month, or the first day or two of the next month.
This time the USDA delayed its release nine days past the semi-official deadline, far past the election, and until Friday night to report August
foodstamp data.
Not
News: Food Stamp Participation Jumped by Over 600,000 in September; Last Pre-Election Number Revised Up. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture released its latest report on food stamp program participation through September today [12/7/2012]. I received the email
alerting me to the release at 5:17 p.m., so it seems reasonable to believe that USDA and the Barack Obama administration wanted the new
data to get as little attention as possible. If so, they have two probable reasons for wishing to minimize its impact.
Administration's program halts 102,000
deportations. The administration has issued stays of deportation for 102,965 illegal immigrants under President Obama's new non-deportation
policy, officials announced Friday [12/14/2012]. Another 157,151 applications are still under review under the policy, officially known as Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals, which grants a tentative legal status to illegal immigrants who qualify — though it does not grant them a path
to citizenship.
New air pollution standards restrict soot particles.
The Obama administration announced a new air pollution standard Friday [12/14/2012] that would bring about a 20% reduction in microscopic particles of soot
emitted by coal-fired power plants and diesel vehicles that contribute to haze and respiratory ailments.
ICE Scraps 287(g) Program That
Allowed Local Police to Enforce Immigration Law. Amid Hispanic calls for immigration leniency, the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Agency is scrapping a program that allowed specially trained state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.
On Dec. 21, the Friday before Christmas, ICE announced that it has decided "not to renew any of its agreements with state and local law enforcement
agencies that operate task forces under the 287(g) program."
ICE memos open another
door to illegal alien amnesty-by-fiat. On Friday [6/17/2012], in another trademark Obama document dump, ICE issued a memo that pushes the
perpetually-rejected DREAM Act for illegal alien students. As immigration lawyer Michelle Scopellite explained to me: "In essence, what this
means is that if someone, is not a major criminal and is in removal proceedings, ICE officers are now to release them or terminate proceedings if they
are involved in a lawsuit or fighting for union ideals. This appears to be another attempt by the Obama admin. to side-step immigration law
through administrative acts.
Gov't
Posts 61 New Federal Regulations, Including 500-Page Rule to Protect 'Critical Habitat' of Flycatcher. The federal
government posted 61 new regulations in the Federal Register on Friday [1/4/2013], including the Department of Interior's 500-page
document outlining a new rule to protect the southwestern willow flycatcher's "critical habitat" in six states. [...] "The effect of this
regulation is to conserve the flycatcher's habitat under the Endangered Species Act," the summary of the regulation states.
Obama
administration delivers delayed regulatory agenda, could cost billions. By law, each April and October, federal
agencies are required to release an accounting of proposed regulations that will have an economically significant impact.
That didn't happen in 2012. Instead, the Obama administration didn't release its 2012 regulatory agenda until on the Friday
before Christmas.
Women in Combat: Why Did
Obama Avoid Congress? The most curious thing about outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's decision this week to allow women
to assume combat roles in the military was the timing. It was announced just as departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was testifying
on Capitol Hill about the Benghazi attack — and came without any advance notification to Congress, much to the annoyance of Republicans
on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Friday News Dump: Partial Hagel Donor List Includes Saudis,
Turkey. The Atlantic Council, chaired by former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), released a list late Friday evening [2/8/2013] of corporate
donors as well as foreign governments that had funded it over the past five years. The list did not shed light on individuals such as Saad
Hariri, whose family has given generously to the Atlantic Council and who has supported the Hamas terror organization publicly, as well as offering
financial support to Syrian rebels.
The
adventures of 'Richard Windsor' — EPA e-mail dump due today. Sometime Friday [2/15/2013], the Environmental
Protection Agency is expected to deliver a tranche of "Richard Windsor" emails to the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Those
emails may shed light on the efforts of Lisa Jackson, EPA's departing administrator, to conceal details of her involvement in
President Obama's war on coal by using the fictional Windsor as a false online identity for certain federal record-keeping.
Obama
Should Admit That Dan Quayle Had It Right. Late last year, the Department of Health and Human Services released results
of a rigorous study showing that the Head Start program, costing $8 billion a year, has had little or no effect on the cognitive,
physical or emotional well-being of kids once they reach third grade. This was clearly what President Obama didn't want people to
hear, and we can't help but wonder why the study, completed in October, was not made public until the Friday before Christmas.
Undaunted by the data, Obama now wants to replicate the ineffectiveness of Head Start on a much bigger scale.
More than
700 pages of healthcare rules released. The Obama administration on Friday released more than 700 pages of
new regulations to implement portions of the Affordable Care Act. The four rules, which are scheduled for publication in
mid-March, finalize both major and minor parts of the healthcare reform law that Congress passed in 2010. Three of the
regulations are final and roll out the multistate healthcare exchanges and reforms to the insurance market, including provisions
to encourage cost-sharing, stabilize health insurance premiums and prevent providers from denying coverage.
Guess
what! It's time for 700 pages more of fun Obamacare regulations. Nancy Pelosi was wrong: Even after passing
the bill, no one could have possibly known what was in it! That's because America's finest bureaucrats are creating a
galaxy of amazing new rules to implement provisions of the "Affordable Care Act". In the traditional Friday-night document
dump that is the hallmark of how the Obama Administration operates, The Hill writer Megan Wilson reports that over 700 pages
of new rules were released [...]
46,609,072 People on Food Stamps
in 2012; Record 47,791,996 in December. On Friday [3/8/2013], the United States Department of Agriculture quietly
released new statistics related to the food stamps program, officially known as SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
The numbers reveal, in 2012, the food stamps program was the biggest it's ever been, with an average of 46,609,072 people on the
program every month of last year. 47,791,996 people were on the program in the month of December 2012.
ICE freed 122 Arizona criminals.
More than a third of the 342 illegal immigrants released from detention facilities in Arizona last month were convicted criminals, and one
of them was categorized as a Level 1 offender, the highest risk, according to data released by the federal government Friday
[3/15/2013].
Why
Is Harry Reid Ashamed Of Senate Democrats' Budget Plan? It was no mistake that the big reveal by Senate Democrats that they
had no plan whatsoever to ever bring the budget into balance came on Friday evening [3/22/2013] going into pre-dawn Saturday morning. Harry Reid
and crew clearly were embarrassed by their budget and hoped to avoid widespread media coverage by scheduling votes when they would receive
the least amount of attention.
Auto makers:
EPA gas rules good for environment, bad for wallets. The Environmental Protection Agency's stringent new gasoline rules
will be good for the environment but will cost both car manufacturers and consumers more money, automakers say. The Tier 3
standards, released Friday [3/29/2013], will require carmakers to reduce emissions and reduce the sulfur content of gasoline by 2017,
cutting sulfur by more than 60 percent and other pollutants by 80 percent.
Eric
Holder was aware that Fox News reporter was to be snooped on. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder approved the decision to seize phone
records and personal emails of FOX News reporter James Rosen, the Justice Department disclosed late Friday [5/24/2013]. The journalist's
messages were obtained after investigators checked with 'the highest levels of the department, including discussions with the Attorney General,'
the department said in a statement.
Update: Ex-State Dept. adviser to plead guilty in leak to Fox News. A former State Department arms expert pleaded
guilty Friday [2/7/2014] in federal court to disclosing national defense information to a Fox News reporter. Stephen Jin-Woo Kim admitted sharing information
from a top-secret intelligence report on North Korea with Fox chief Washington correspondent James Rosen. Investigators in the case also targeted Rosen, calling
him a possible "co-conspirator" in order to obtain a search warrant for his personal e-mail.
Obamacare
will share personal health info with federal, state agencies. A new 253-page Obamacare rule issued late Friday [6/14/2013]
requires state, federal and local agencies as well as health insurers to swap the protected personal health information of anybody seeking
to join the new health care program that will be enforced by the Internal Revenue Service.
State Department's Sex Trafficking Scandals.
Pssst, did you hear? President Obama is replacing Ambassador Howard Gutman in Belgium. You remember Ambassador Gutman, don't you?
He's the big Democrat donor President Obama nominated to represent his policies in Belgium and who, it is alleged, trolled for prostitutes —
some of them children! — in a park near his official residence. Late in the day on Friday, June 21, the White House released a
list of new nominees for various posts, and Denise Bauer was listed for the United States Ambassador to Belgium post.
The Obamacare mess. The administration can call it whatever
it wants, but there is no hiding the embarrassment of a climbdown on a high-profile feature of President Barack Obama's signature initiative —
although the administration seemed determined to do all it could to hide it. If Bloomberg hadn't broken the news on Tuesday, the administration was
apparently planning to announce it on July 3 — only because the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve were too far off.
Obamacare's Invitation to Fraud.
[Scroll down] Other states clearly shared this worry about how they were supposed to confirm eligibility for subsidies. But on
Friday, the Obama administration answered their question with what is becoming the familiar refrain of Obamacare implementation:
"never mind." Buried in a massive 600-page rule released without fanfare the day after July 4, the administration announced
that it would effectively delay the requirement to verify eligibility in the state exchanges.
The White House says you can sign up 'without further verification.' ObamaCare's 'Liar' Subsidies.
The White House seems to regard laws as mere suggestions, including the laws it helped to write. On the heels of last week's one-year
suspension of the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate to offer insurance to workers, the Administration is now waiving a new batch of its own
ObamaCare prescriptions. These disclosures arrived inside a 606-page catch-all final rule that the Health and Human Services Department
published on July 5 — a classic Friday news dump, with extra credit for the holiday weekend.
Obama Administration Illegally
Amends Obamacare. The Obama Administration has taken an axe to the Affordable Care Act, after finally admitting that
it is too complex to implement. The move to delay the employer mandate appears to be illegal on its face. It is also
further redundant proof that Obamacare must be repealed. As announced in a post on the Treasury blog, the administration,
through the IRS, is delaying the implementation of "reporting requirements", leading to a one-year suspension of the mandate that
employers provide health insurance to their full-time employees. The announcement was leaked to two reporters from Bloomberg
News, and was originally scheduled to be made the eve of the July 4th federal holiday.
Documents shed light on U.S. surveillance programs.
The Obama administration released two documents on Friday describing the scope of National Security Agency data collection programs, a bid to
quiet criticism they violate privacy rights. An NSA memorandum describes the beginnings of the agency's collection of so-called telephone
metadata of nearly every American under a provision of the Patriot Act, and the agency's monitoring of foreign Internet traffic.
Going Around Congress, Again.
[Scroll down] Just before Christmas, Health and Human Services (HHS) were preparing to release their long-overdue evaluation of the Head Start Program.
Since it's [sic] inception in 1965, taxpayers have spent more than $180 billion on the program. The HHS scientifically-rigorous study tracked 5,000 children
who were randomly assigned to a group receiving Head Start services or a group that did not participate. It followed their progression from age three or four
through the end of third grade. The first-grade study found that any benefits the children may have accrued while in the Head Start program were gone by the
time they reached first grade. [...] In spite of prodding from Congress, they did not make the study public until the Friday before Christmas.
U.S. debt jumps a record $328
billion — tops $17 trillion for first time. U.S. debt jumped a record $328 billion on Thursday [10/17/2013], the first day the
federal government was able to borrow money under the deal President Obama and Congress sealed this week. The debt now equals $17.075 trillion,
according to figures the Treasury Department posted online on Friday [10/18/2013].
US quietly releasing $1.6B in Pakistan assistance. The U.S. has quietly
decided to release more than $1.6 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan that was suspended when relations between the two countries disintegrated
over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden and deadly U.S. airstrikes against Pakistani soldiers.
HHS to issue sweeping
mental health rules. The Obama administration will issue long awaited regulations Friday [11/8/2013] that require insurers to treat mental
illness and addiction the same as physical illnesses, current and former lawmakers said. In testimony Thursday before a Senate Judiciary
subcommittee, mental health advocate and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would announce
the action during a speech in Atlanta. Members of the panel familiar with the rule-making also said the regulations would be issued Friday.
AG Holder asks for
appeal in Fast and Furious case holding him in contempt. Attorney General Eric Holder wants to appeal a recent judge's ruling that allows
the House to continue with its contempt case, related to Holder's refusal to turn over documents concerning the Justice Department's failed Operation
Fast and Furious gun-tracking program. Holder made the request Friday night [11/15/2013] to U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, asking
that the Justice Department be allowed to put the case in front of a federal appeals court before Jackson makes any final decisions.
EPA proposes reducing biofuel mandate.
The Obama administration on Friday [11/15/2013] proposed to reduce the amount of ethanol in the nation's fuel supply for the first time, acknowledging
that the biofuel law championed by both parties in 2007 is not working as well as expected.
11 tough questions Obama
is happy he didn't get. First the good news from President Obama's final news conference of 2013: "I've run my last political race."
Of course, Obama made no new news. If he'd wanted to make news, he would not have scheduled it on short notice and on a Friday, when politicians
release news they want overlooked.
HHS Regulation Could Add More Names
to List of Prohibited Gun Buyers. The Obama administration says it is doing away with "unnecessary legal barriers" that discourage states from
sending the names of some mentally ill people to the national background check system for gun-buyers. Late on Friday afternoon [1/3/2014], the Department
of Health and Human Services announced that it plans to modify HIPAA — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 —
"to expressly permit certain HIPAA-covered entities (hospitals, doctors, clinics, etc.) to disclose to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System
(NICS) the identities of individuals" with mental problems that should legally disqualify them from owning a gun.
It's
Official: 65% of Small Firms Face ObamaCare Premium Hikes. Released into a news black hole last Friday, an official Obama administration
report finds that ObamaCare will push premiums up for two-thirds of small businesses. Cross off another ObamaCare promise.
Obama's ever-growing
insurance-company bailout. Health-insurance executives are starting to warn of double- and even
triple-digit premium hikes for health plans sold on the ObamaCare exchanges for 2015. But Health Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius told Congress last week that any ObamaCare premium hikes would be modest. In fact, the
Obama administration is scrambling to rewrite the law to make that happen. After close of business Friday,
the administration proposed greater bailout protection for insurers who sell exchange plans. The new rule
sweetens what the Affordable Care Act provided (at taxpayer expense, of course) to protect the companies from
losses. It's illegal, because no president has the constitutional authority to rewrite any law, including
the Affordable Care Act.
Obama
EPA To Regulate Bovine Emissions. It's our lust for cheeseburgers that's dooming the planet through
climate change, the Obama administration said in a Climate Action Plan released Friday [3/28/2014] that
seeks to save us all from ruminant livestock. Having already blamed the Industrial Revolution
for what we used to call weather and temperatures that have flat-lined for 15 years, the White House is
now targeting American agriculture abundance by slashing methane emissions from cows by 25% by 2020.
EPA Paid Nearly $500K in
Unauthorized Bonuses. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) paid out nearly $500,000 in unauthorized
bonuses, according to a report released by the EPA Inspector General Friday [5/2/2014]. An Inspector General (IG)
investigation found that 11 EPA employees received $481,819 in unauthorized retention bonuses between 2006 and 2013.
The bonuses are meant to incentivize employees who receive other job offers. The bonuses are supposed to be
reauthorized annually, but for 10 of those EPA officials, the IG could find no evidence that their bonuses were
reviewed, as required by federal regulations and EPA policies.
HHS widens
O-Care penalty exemptions. People who obtained health plans off the marketplaces after March 31
will not automatically face a penalty under the individual mandate, the Obama administration said Friday [5/2/2014].
In a bulletin, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) created a temporary hardship exemption for people
who purchased coverage that was effective on Thursday of this week or beforehand. The move essentially nullifies
the month of April for the purposes of enforcing the mandate. Previously, people with a three-month gap in
coverage in 2014 would have faced a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of annual household income. This
meant that almost everyone needed to have health insurance by March 31. But the administration
changed this deadline to May 1 for many people who struggled to enroll on the marketplaces.
General
Motors Is Recalling 51,000 Cars to Fix Fuel Gauge. General Motors is recalling 51,640 Buick Enclave,
Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia sport utility vehicles of the 2014 model year because faulty software may cause
the fuel gauge to read inaccurately, federal regulators said Saturday [5/3/2014].
On a Friday afternoon: White
House Press Secretary Resigns. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, is leaving his
post as the public face of the administration, stepping down after shifting from two decades of reporting
to politics at the highest levels, President Obama said on Friday. Mr. Obama, who announced Mr.
Carney's departure, said Mr. Carney would be replaced by the deputy press secretary, Josh Earnest.
Phoenix
VA gave 10 mil in in bonuses in last 3 years. Newly released records show the Phoenix
VA Health Care System paid out roughly $10 million in bonuses during the past three years, when
some staff manipulated patient wait-time records to trigger bonuses as veterans died awaiting care.
The Arizona Republic, after asking for bonus records at least 10 times since March, obtained the
data Friday [6/13/2014] from the Department of Veteran Affairs under the federal Freedom of Information
Act. Bonus payouts increased significantly under Sharon Helman, who became director of the
Phoenix VA in February 2012.
Sometimes Friday document dumps happen on Thursday, if Friday is a federal holiday. HHS
releases 1,296 pages of regulations ahead of holiday weekend. As Americans scrambled ahead of the July Fourth holiday
weekend on Thursday afternoon [7/3/2014], the Department of Health and Human Services released 1,296 pages of new regulations
dealing with payment rates to doctors and hospitals. The timing of the news release is part of a long pattern for President Obama's
administration, which has often used holidays as an opportunity to dump dense regulatory changes when most reporters and Americans are
focused on their holiday plans. The release came at 4:15 p.m.
New
ObamaCare Rules Mean Less Care, More Paperwork. On July 3, when Americans were
preparing to celebrate freedom, the Obama administration reduced freedom by adding 1,296 pages of
regulations to ObamaCare. The burdensome rules were published in the Federal Register on
Independence Day eve, when few were likely to be watching. So much for transparency.
White
House Hid Huge Spike Of Families Crossing Border. New data shows the White House has
painted a false picture of the Central American migration by hiding a huge spike in "family units"
who are illegally crossing the Texas border. The data, which was dumped by the U.S. border patrol
late Friday afternoon [7/18/2014], shows that inflow of youths and children traveling without parents has
doubled since 2013, to 57,525 in the nine months up to July 2014.
Friday
News Dump: Feds Unveil New Birth Control Mandate. The problem with ObamaCare isn't just that it's the so called
law of the land, said law seems to keep changing in reaction to events and court rulings until not even "we have to pass it to
see what's in it" holds up to the slightest scrutiny.
IRS says it has
lost emails from 5 more employees. The Internal Revenue Service has lost emails from five more employees
who are part of congressional probes into the treatment of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status, the
tax service disclosed Friday.
Obama
Quietly Begins Unilateral Immigration Reform. President Obama Friday made a
downpayment on the sweeping immigration "reform" he is expected to unilaterally declare once the
elections are out of the way, permitting up to around 100,000 prospective Haitian immigrants to
bypass immigration law and enter the country. The move, a typical Friday announcement designed to
attract minimum notice, eliminated wait times for future Florida Democratic voters Haitians who have
been approved to gain green cards in two years, allowing them to make their way to the United States
beginning in 2015 instead and begin working if they want. Their entry has to have been petitioned
by "family" members already in the United States.
Professsional
Political Class: "Stay The Course" = Strategic Massive News Dumps. They're trying to
flood the field ahead of Thanksgiving, it's brutally obvious. This is classic use of "the
bathtub principle" at work: Today IRS reports recovery of 30,000 Lois Lerner emails from '09
to '11[.] Today House Intel "Panel" Releases Benghazi Report[.] Today Obama gives speech on
highly anticipated immigration Executive Order[.] Today media and nation await Saint Louis Mike
Brown shooting verdict. 100 FBI agents dispatched to Ferguson[.] DOJ Releases 40,000+ Fast
and Furious documents (emails)[.] HHS Admits ObamaCare enrollment overstated.
It's
Probably Just A Coincidence That 30,000 Lois Lerner Emails Were Discovered Right After The
Election. By now, the whole world knows that on Friday [11/21/2014], 30,000 "missing"
Lois Lerner emails were discovered. We don't want you to think that there's anything shady going
on here. It's probably just a coincidence that they were found a couple of weeks after an important,
mid-term election. These 30,000 emails were allegedly lost forever. But, lo and behold, they
were discovered on backup disaster recovery tapes! Yes, the same kind of backup disaster recovery
tapes that experts have been telling us existed all along.
The Editor says...
Notice also that this announcement came the day after Obama's imperial declaration of amnesty for
illegal aliens, which is likely to displace this topic on all the weekend political talk shows.
HHS calls for slew of Obamacare rule changes.
The Obama administration late Friday [11/21/2014] called for numerous significant changes to rules
controlling the Obamacare health care program, including ones that would shorten open-enrollment
seasons, increase transparency of insurance plans and prices, and push current customers toward
lower-cost plans. Most of the new rules proposed by the Health and Human Services Department
would go into effect in 2016 if they are approved. The extensive proposed changes were outlined by
a six-page fact sheet distributed by HHS, containing 35 different individual explanations of the
suggestions. The proposals themselves are 324 pages long.
White
House Quietly Releases Plans For 3,415 Regulations Ahead Of Thanksgiving Holiday.
While Americans are focused on what delicious foods they're going to eat for Thanksgiving, the White
House is focused on releasing its massive regulatory agenda — marking the fifth time the
Obama administration has released its regulatory road map on the eve of a major holiday. The
federal Unified Agenda is the Obama administration's regulatory road map, and it lays out thousands
of regulations being finalized in the coming months. Under President Barack Obama, there has been
a tradition of releasing the agenda late on Friday — and right before a major holiday.
Massively destructive environmental regulations announced on the day before Thanksgiving: EPA
unveils contentious plan to tighten ozone standards. The Obama administration unveiled
an ambitious plan Wednesday [11/26/2014 - the day before Thanksgiving] that it said would improve
public health by slashing the ozone pollution that causes smog. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy framed the update to the ground-level ozone standard as an
imperative, bringing agency rules in line with the latest science to protect the nation's most
vulnerable populations from a range of respiratory illnesses including asthma.
DoD
renames "unlawful combatants" in detainee manual to .... In fact, captured
terrorists went out of style a long time ago, so that's not the actual change. Until
recently — like, say, two weeks ago — the Department of Defense used the term
unlawful combatant as the label for terrorists captured by American military and intelligence
forces as a way to distinguish them from uniformed soldiers of a recognized state authority in a
straight-up fight. Their new manual dispenses with that term, the Federation of American
Scientists noticed today [11/26/2014].
The president
rewrites the ObamaCare law — again. On Thanksgiving eve, the Obama administration
dumped reams of mind-numbing ObamaCare regulations into the Federal Register — including yet more
unilateral rewrites of the Affordable Care Act. Dropping the rules as most Americans were busy preparing
for the holiday made a mockery (again) of President Obama's promise to have "the most transparent administration
in history." The stunt has even worked to keep most of the media from reporting on the rules. Yet
the changes these regulations make in the health care law are substantial.
Christmas
Eve Document Dump Reveals NSA Wrongdoings. While many Americans were sitting down for
Christmas Eve meals and celebrations, the National Security Agency released redacted documents in
which the agency admits to having "incorrectly acquired" surveillance data and violating the law
over the past 12 years. The documents, which detail many instances of wrongdoing from
2001 to 2013, were released following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought forth by the
American Civil Liberties Union.
Feds to Weigh Children
in Daycare. Bureaucrats from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will weigh and
measure children in daycare as part of a study mandated by First Lady Michelle Obama's Healthy
Hunger-Free Kids Act. The agency published a notice in the Federal Register on Friday [3/20/2015]
proposing data collection on what meals are served in professional and home daycare facilities and how much
physical activity children perform. Aside from assessing how healthy the food in daycare is, the
USDA will also check the weight and height of roughly 3,000 children.
DHS
blames tech glitch for violating judge's amnesty injunction. The Obama administration
blamed a technology glitch for why it continued to approve new amnesty applications in February,
even after a federal judge issued an injunction, telling the court late Friday [5/15/2015] that they
are now begging about 2,000 illegal immigrants to tear up their three-year work authorizations.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security agency that approved the deportation
amnesty applications for Dreamers despite the judge's order, insisted it's corrected the immigrants'
records at headquarters, but said it's also asking the immigrants themselves to send back their
three-year documents and accept two-year papers instead.
Obamas worth
millions, disclosure forms reveal. President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's
assets total somewhere between $1.9 million and $6.9 million, according to financial disclosure
forms released Friday [5/15/2015] by the White House. The bulk of the Obamas' wealth is invested
in U.S. Treasury bills and notes, the total being estimated between $1.25 million and $5.25 million.
GOP
slams Obama's latest 'land grab'. Top Republicans on Friday [7/20/2015] accused President Obama of a
"surreptitious land grab" after the administration claimed more than 1 million acres in California, Texas, and Nevada,
designating the land as new national monuments. Mr. Obama formally designated the land Friday afternoon [7/10/2015].
EPA [was] aware of
'blowout' risk at mine that could release tainted wastewater. Managers at the Environmental Protection Agency were aware of the
possible risk for a catastrophic "blowout" at an abandoned mine that could release "large volumes" of wastewater laced with toxic metals,
according to internal documents released late Friday [8/21/2015]. EPA released the documents following weeks of prodding from news
organizations like The Associated Press.
The
details behind that EPA gold mine spill just get worse and worse. The "unfortunate accident" that the EPA had
near Silverton, Colorado recently has raised all sorts of questions, not the least of which is why it took the agency 24 hours
to tell anyone about it. (The folks who draw water off the river are particularly interested in that one.) But hey...
accidents happen, right? I mean, it's not like anyone could have seen it coming. Except that the EPA actually did
see it coming. During a late Friday night document dump the Environmental Protection Agency lifted the mask just a bit and
revealed that they knew what they were getting into.
Interior
Department quietly suspends Arctic drilling leases. As part of the Friday night [10/16/2015] news dump, the Obama administration
did a complete about face on the subject of Arctic oil exploration. After years of supporting research and efforts to keep our options
open for future energy development, Interior Department boss Sally Jewell sent out word that extensions or expansion of permits for drilling
off of Alaska's coast would essentially be extinguished.
IRS'
Lois Lerner Skates; An Ugly Precedent Is Set. Is there anyone out there subject to an Internal Revenue Service audit
or a multiyear delay in approval for tax-exempt status who won't be concerned that the process is politically rigged against them?
That's the message the Justice Department sent when, in a classic Friday night news dump, it decided to not file charges against IRS
tax-exempt groups chief Lois Lerner. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Justice said that while it found "mismanagement,
poor judgment and inertia," there was no case for a criminal prosecution.
Lois Lerner and the Rule of Lawlessness.
In a Friday news dump, Obama's Justice Department announced that following its "investigation," Lois Lerner will not be charged for any wrongdoing in the
case of the IRS' targeting of conservative organizations. The law, apparently, is only meant for little people. [...] Tellingly, the Committee
concluded that: "The IRS's treatment of these organizations was almost universally consistent with Lerner's personal political views —
this is, supporting Democratic candidates and opposing conservative tax-exempt organizations that engaged in political speech. Conservative
organizations that sought to participate in the nation's political discourse, such as the Tea Party, drew the strongest ire from Lerner."
Obamacare
Repeal Would Cut Deficit, Boost Growth — CBO. A little-noticed report released Friday afternoon
[12/11/2015] by the Congressional Budget Office shows that the Senate bill to repeal most of ObamaCare would cut the deficit
by as much as $474 billion, while boosting GDP, investment and capital stock. The findings stand in sharp contrast to
promises by President Obama and other Democrats that ObamaCare would accelerate economic growth and lower federal deficits.
According to the CBO, repealing ObamaCare's subsidies and Medicaid expansion would cut federal spending by almost $1.4 trillion
over the next 10 years. And getting rid of its myriad tax hikes would reduce tax revenues by $1.1 trillion, resulting
in $281 billion decrease in projected deficits over the next decade.
2015
set new record for terror plots in U.S.. Last year saw the most terrorist attacks and plots in the U.S. since
Sept. 11, 2001, according to the Heritage Foundation's tally, which was released Friday [1/8/2016] just as the Obama administration
announced a series of new terror-related arrests and indictments. The 13 "Islamist-inspired" attacks and plots uncovered in 2015
were more than the previous three years combined, according to Heritage researched Riley Walters.
Obama
Commutes Sentences of More Violent Criminals. The fundamental transformation continues to roll on as
scheduled. As always, Obama waited until late Friday afternoon, when reporters largely pack up for the weekend, to
announce the commutation of sentences for 42 more drug traffickers in federal prison. President Obama defended this
move as a common sense gesture to low-level nonviolent drug offenders, but as we've explained over the past few years, most
people in federal prison are anything but "nonviolent." MRC has posted the names of 10 of the individuals who were convicted
of firearms violations in addition to drug trafficking charges. This at a time when Obama wants to crack down on
law-abiding gun owners and dealers.